These are the best subjects to take at the top universities in South Africa

If you want to study to be vet in South Africa, then the University of Pretoria should be your first choice – and if you’re considering the hospitality industry, then the University of Johannesburg is a top option.

These are some of the findings from the Academic Ranking of World Universities’ (ARWU) latest annual ranking of academic subjects for 2018 – which shows the subjects that global universities (including South Africa’s) excel in.

The ranking system is heavily focused on research quality, impact, and collaboration, and assesses more than 1,600 institutions from 83 countries across 54 subjects in five broad subject areas.

These include: natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medical sciences, and social sciences.

For each field of study, the top 500 universities were listed, with 12 South African universities ranked among them in almost every field.

Where South African institutes generally excel is in social sciences, with the country’s top universities also featuring in the natural sciences, life sciences and certain engineering fields.

Engineering is generally South Africa’s weakest area, with our universities showing in only six of the 22 subject fields – featuring most prominently in the mining and mineral engineering category.

While South African universities mostly rank in the lower-reaches of each category (outside of the top 200), several made it into the top 100, or even the top 50.

The University of Johannesburg attained the highest ranking of all SA universities, listed as the 20th best university in the world for its hospitality and tourism courses. Wits University meanwhile ranked as the 32nd best university in the world for its mining engineering courses, and in the top 75 for public health sciences.

The University of Pretoria ranked 37th overall for veterinary sciences, and Stellenbosch University also made it into the top 50 for mining engineering, ranked 47th, and in the top 75 for food science technology.

The University of Cape Town featured in the most subject rankings (20) but only ranked within the top 100 for mining and engineering.

Below, we’ve listed the best fields of study across all 12 South African universities featured, ordered by highest to lowest rank.